Thursday, January 31, 2013

Team Umizoomi Birthday Party

Of course my kids always pick birthday party themes that do not have pre-packaged supplies readily available at retail stores. My son's third birthday was no exception. He loves Geo and wanted a Team Umizoomi party...so we made it happen. Sans Party City. Sans Target. Thankfully, the good people at Nick Jr. have provided tons of printables on their web site to help us out.

By the way, if you're reading this and thinking, "Team Umi-wha???," then you most likely do not have preschool-age children, and/or do not watch cable television.

Team Umizoomi is an animated series on Nick Jr. about siblings Geo and Milli and their robot friend Bot who solve problems in UmiCity using their mighty math powers. Yes, it's math and yes, kids love it.

My son's Team Umizoomi party was a family party consisting of four kids and about 15 adults. Even though there weren't many kids at the party, I still wanted to plan some fun activities for them. Here's a glimpse of what we did...

INVITATIONS

Umi Friends, do you feel a celebration coming on?! For your own Team Umizoomi party, you'll want to start by sending invitations. We printed the Team Umizoomi Party Invites from the Nick Jr. web site onto regular paper, trimmed the edges, and folded along the dotted lines. We used foam number-stickers to add a "3" to the front of each invitation.

UMI GEAR

Team Umizoomi, ready for action! Set the tone for your party with your very own Team Umizoomi shirts. Check out the free printables on Nick Jr. (listed below). Just print them onto iron-on transfer paper. Be sure to check the package instructions to see if you need a reversed image or not for your iron-on transfer paper. Both reversed and regular images are available on the web site. We recommend printing the images on white shirts (the ones below were purchased at Target); the image just didn't look right on the gray shirt.

We printed two sets of the Team Umizoomi Tabletop Decoration onto white card stock. After cutting them out, we used double-sided tape to adhere each pair back to back. Then follow the dotted lines to make the slits, and fit the two sets together.

We made a few garlands using ribbon and some of the printables from the web site:

1. For each printable used, print two copies onto white card stock.
2. Cut out all of the decorations.
3. Measure the doorways and other areas where you will hang the garlands and cut your ribbon accordingly. I left a few extra inches on each end for curling; just mark your "start" and "end" points on the ribbon with masking tape.
4. Use double-sided adhesive to secure each pair of decorations together, with the ribbon in between them. Leave a couple of inches and add another pair to the ribbon. Continue until you have filled the space needed, according to your measurements.
5. Curl the extra ribbon left on the ends, and hang up your festive masterpiece.

The Team Umizoomi Posters are fun and festive. Each one requires four sheets of paper (we used white card stock), plus a couple of minutes to trim along the dotted lines, and secure the pieces together.

Looking for more decorations? I printed the iron-on designs (see links above) onto white card stock, trimmed them, and hung them around the party area. Just be sure you do not use the reverse images.

If you have an insane amount of time before the party, you could make some Platonic solids (three-dimensional shapes) to decorate your party area. This sounded like a fantastic idea to me; I cut and made about three dozen of these shapes. It took forever. Yes, they looked kind of cool. I got to post on Facebook that I was making dodecahedrons (12-sided shape). But really, they did not make or break the party. If you are so inclined, here are the templates to make cubes icosahedrons, tetrahedrons, octahedrons, and dodecahedrons. Be sure to leave yourself plenty of time. And lots of wine couldn't hurt, either.

THE ACTIVITIES

1. Umiriffic Scavenger Hunt- Print the scavenger hunt card and pictures onto white card stock; cut out the pictures; and hang them around the party area (up high, down low...) before the party.

Each child gets a scavenger hunt card and a crayon. They can work together or individually to find all of the pictures on their card.

2. Pattern Power! We made beaded bracelets using pipe cleaners and pony beads. Both are available at craft stores. The kids can string the beads onto their pipe cleaner, then twist the ends together to secure around their wrist.

3. Pin the Shape Belt on Geo. This is a great use for any of the character posters; we used the Geo Poster. Before the party, I used a piece of paper to draft a rectangle that would fit on Geo's shape belt. I used the draft as a template to cut enough belts from yellow construction paper; one per child. If you have an extra minute, draw the circle, square, and triangle on each belt - just like Geo's.

At the party, you'll need masking tape and a bandana or other blindfold (optional - younger kids often don't want to be blindfolded).

4. Super Shapes! Kids can make their own Shape Belts, just like Geo. There are instructions on the Nick Jr site. I made the belts ahead of time (you'll need felt and velcro tape from the craft store), and provided the kids with adhesive foam shapes (also at the craft store).

GOODIE BAGS
We cut out the Team Umizoomi Party Thank You Notes from the web site and attached one per paper bag using a glue stick. There is even a spot on the notes to write each guest's name.

My goal was to find fun things that had to do with shapes, patterns, and numbers for the goodie bags. This was not an easy task so I resorted to:

beaded necklaces (they're colorful, and the beads are geometric, right?!)

UmiCar Sandwich - if you want to get a bit more creative than just using cookie cutters, check out this 3-D replica of UmiCar to impress your foodie friends. Ingredients and instructions are listed on the Nick Jr. web site.

Milli Sandwich - a sweet and fruity sandwich for Milli fans. You could probably follow the same "template" to create a Milli Pizza - a ready-baked pizza crust such as Boboli, tomato sauce for her helmet, shredded mozzarella cheese for her face, red peppers and black olives cut to make the features of her face, and maybe a couple of bread sticks covered in tomato sauce for her ponytails.

TIME FOR CAKEOf course it had to be a Geo cake! Once again, a big thank you to Nick Jr. for providing detailed instructions to decorate this cake. The web site also has instructions for a Milli cake, Bot cake, UmiCar cake, and a variety of cupcakes and character cookies. By request, we had a chocolate cake and homemade cream cheese frosting. I recommend sliding a few strips of wax or parchment paper under the edges of the bottom cake layer to protect your platter or cake stand from stray frosting. Once the final frosting-details are complete, just slide the paper away and voila! Your cake stand is clean and pretty.

Of course you'll need party hats for singing "Happy Birthday" and eating cake. Team Umizoomi Party Hats are available as free printables on the web site.

Just print onto white card stock, cut them out, and secure together with double-sided adhesive.

Punch a small hole (a safety pin works well) on each side of the hat, and feed a length of elastic through one hole; tie a knot to secure on the inside.

Measure the appropriate length for the elastic by placing the hat on your child's head as a guide. Leave an extra inch; cut the elastic.

Feed the cut end through the second hole and secure by tying a knot on the inside of the hat.

I hope you enjoy adding these ideas to your Team Umizoomi party. Do you have any other fun ideas to add? Be sure to Post a Comment and share with us! As always, thanks for reading.

27 comments:

Thanks for stopping by ROCmomma. I hope these ideas are helpful, and that your son enjoys his Team Umizoomi party as much as mine. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the ideas in this post. Good luck! :)

Omg..Kim, really you are going to put the rest of us moms to shame! My son is a huge Team Umizoomi fan and we are also planning this as his themed 3rd birthday party as well. It will be combined with a tangled themed birthday party for his 1 yr old sister. I don't know how you found the time to do all this. Thank you for all the ideas...I can only hope ours will turn out half as good as yours! With 3 kids under 4, I'm trying my best by starting early..I'm giving myself a month. Wish me good luck. -Christine

Christine, thanks for stopping by! I hope everything was amazing at your Team Umizoomi-Tangled party. With 3 kids under 4, I don't know how you did it...so congratulations! I was only able to find the time because mine are 3 & 5, so they were able to either help or stay busy while mommy worked on it all. Let me know how your party turned out!!!

Thanks for stopping by ROCmomma! Since my son's favorite Team Umizoomi character is Geo, we went with blue plates, cups, napkins, and utensils. So you could do pink for Milli, green for Bot, orange for UmiCar, or a mix of the four colors. I hope that helps! Good luck, and be sure to let us know how your party goes.

Thanks for visiting ROCmomma! I have an HP Deskjet printer and I am able to print on card stock. I have used both packaged card stock from Staples, as well as card stock from my scrapbooking collection and all of it has worked just fine. I would say check your printer's manual, or just give it a try. Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

Your a life saver! I have been searching everywhere looking for team umizoomi party supplies. I cannot believe there are NONE! Thanks for all the great links and ideas. You helped me a lot in planning my daughters 3rd birthday party!

thanks for sharing your ideas!! my daughter is a big umizoomi fan and I've been trying to find different ideas for her 3rd birthday. it's not until March but I've been trying to plan ahead so everything Will be perfect!! although, I am concerned that an umizoomi theme may not be as girly...

Thanks for visiting ROCmomma! I'm sure you could make your daughter's birthday party more girly by using pink to decorate (tablecloths, paper products, balloons) as well as lots of Milli. I hope your daughter has a very Happy 3rd Birthday!

Thank you for putting all these ideas in one place for me! I had seen a few of them myself on the Nick website or Pinterest (where I found your site), but you are just the veteran mom I needed to hear from! My son is going to LOVE these ideas for his 3rd birthday next month!

Love your post. two years ago there wasn't muuch when my middle son wanted an Umizoomi party. Now my youngest is turning 3 and wants an Umizoomi party. There is a bit more merchandise now but I like your ideas which are not as packaged. I like the activity ideas you wrote about and intend to use a few of them, so, thank you!

About Me

ROCmomma is dedicated to finding fun things to do in the Rochester, NY area, awesome (but easy) craft projects for young kids, kid-friendly recipes, as well as tips for the rare date night or girls' night out.